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His office is in the blue paint of the goal crease, not faceoff circle red.

That fact has perhaps never been more apparent than in James van Riemsdyk’s play over the first quarter of the Maple Leafs’ season.

A pair of goals by the big winger Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre jump-started a flat-lining Toronto offence and helped the team to a hang-on-for-dear-life 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

With the morning acquisition of young centre Peter Holland, Leafs coach Randy Carlyle was able to return van Riemsdyk to his customary work space on the left side of a line flanked by Phil Kessel on the other wing.

The result was both swift and efficient and allowed van Riemsdyk to pick up where he left off before injuries to Tyler Bozak and David Bolland squeezed him into the middle.

“I’m probably a little more comfortable playing (on the wing), maybe allows me to do some different things as far as being in front of the net a little more often,” van Riemsdyk said after boosting his goal total to nine on the season. “That’s a big part of my game, obviously.”

Though he tried to make the best of the awkward situation at centre — Carlyle had no real choice and van Riemsdyk gave it the old college try — he didn’t manage a point in his four full games there. Kessel managed just one goal in that stretch and the team itself just four overall.

So when general manager Dave Nonis was able to finalize a trade with Anaheim late Saturday morning to acquire Holland for Marlies defencemen Jesse Blacker and some draft picks, lineup options opened.

After playing an AHL game in Providence on Friday night, Caledon, Ont., native Holland was propelled into the bright lights of Hockey Night In Canada and in the middle of two of the Leafs best offensive players — van Riemsdyk and Kessel.

While Holland didn’t have a direct input on the offence, merely springing JVR did. Both of his goals — on first period tip-ins from expertly played Cody Franson point shots — came quickly after a faceoff. If van Riemsdyk had been taking either draw, obviously, he would have been in no position to score.

With his nine goals in 18 games, van Riemsdyk is on pace to crush his previous NHL season best — the 21 goals he scored with the Flyers in 2010-11. The more he has matured as a player — and the more ice time Carlyle has afforded him as a result — the more he has evolved into a bonafide scoring threat.

“I’ve gotten an opportunity to play some big minutes and offensive situations,” van Riemsdyk said. “When you get the chance to do that, you grow as a player. You pick up some nuanced of how to score goals in front of the net.”

The van Riemsdyk pair shot the Leafs out to an important early lead against the Sabres, who had won the opener of the back-to-back Friday in Buffalo by a 3-1 score. Given that the Leafs had lost three in a row entering Saturday night and had struggled to find offence, a quick start was needed.

When Nikolai Kulemin checked in with his first of the season at 11:49 of the second, the Leafs appeared to be home and cooled out. Nothing comes easy with this team, though.

“Back-to-back (games) kind of caught up with us,” Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf said. “We sat back a little and they came.”

That they did. Obviously still buoyed by the mid-week management change and the task of impressing coach Ted Nolan behind the bench, the Sabres surged in the third. Goals by Jamie McBain and Tyler Ennis 6:11 into the final period had Buffalo within one leading to much more excitement than necessary for the home side.

“It wasn’t high on artistic value but it’s two points and we’ll move on,” Carlyle said.

The Leafs injury woes continued when defenceman Mark Fraser left in the first period with a lower-body injury and did not return. Carlyle couldn’t offer a timeline on his return, pending further evaluation on Sunday.

With the victory, the Leafs moved to 12-7-1 and the 25 points moved them back into a tie for second with the Bruins in the Atlantic Division.